New emails of which the American media came to possess a profound involvement of the team’s leaders in helping the Archdiocese to manage the accusations that led to 600 complaints
Five years ago the Saints, a Football NFL team who is an institution of New Orleans, had claimed to have provided only a “minimum” assistance to the Archdiocese local, overwhelmed by a scandal of sexual abuse of their priests. Now a series of about 300 emails obtained from the New York Times and the Associated Press reveal a much greater involvement of the Saints managers in helping the Archdiocese with public opinion to the point that the victims of the abuses have said they were disgusted by the involvement of the squad.
The Church-Club ties
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According to what was reconstructed by the American media, the leaders of the Church of New Orleans, aware of the imminent publication of a list of priests protagonists of abuse, turned to the management of the Saints, whose owner, Gayle Benson, is a Catholic devoted, dear Gregory Aymond’s friend of Archbishop. He had been the club’s communication manager, Greg Bensel, to contact Mrs. Benson via email to inform her of an article on the topic released on the local news. It is then that Bensel offered to make his skills in “crisis communications” available to the archdiocese, gained in his decades of work for the Saints: Mrs. Benson thanked him and said he would share his offer with Archbishop Aymond: this exchange is the first of the 300 emails subject to the investigation that reveals how much the Saints have exploited their influence to New Orleans to help the Archdiocese.
The scandal
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The accusations of abuse led to dozens of civil cases and extrajudicial agreements, over 600 complaints of abuses in the case of bankruptcy during the archdiocese and a handful of criminal convictions. Since the Archbishop Aymond, since 2009, the Archdiocese of New Orleans has spent millions of dollars in agreements for the complaints of abuse, while the victims and their representatives have said that he did not promptly report the accusations to the public or the police. His link with the Benson family is testified by the apparitions together with Mrs. Benson on the wagons of Mardi Gras and her role as a witness of her husband’s will, Tom.
reactions
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“He is disgusting,” said the representative of the State Mandie Landry. “As a resident of New Orleans, taxpayer and Catholic, it makes no sense for me the reason why the Saints would have gone to this point to protect adult men who raped children. All of them should have been equally horrified by the accusations”. The e-mails cover a period of one year ended in July 2019, when they were sued by the lawyers of the victims of a priest later accused of raping an 8-year-old boy. In a long statement, the team has criticized the media for using “e-mails leaked in order to misunderstand a well-intended effort. No member of the Saints organization tolerates or wants to hide the abuses that occurred in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. That ‘ Abuse is a terrible fact. ” “We felt betrayed by the organization,” says Kevin Bourgeois, a former seasonal subscriber of the Saints who was abused by a priest in the 80s. “It forces me to question what other secrets are kept hidden. I am angry, injured and traumatized again”.
Gazzetta dello Sport
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